Mr. President. I do not know of any subject of greater interest to the American people today than that of immigration and the deportation of alien criminals and undesirables. I provide myself with this opportunity to address the Members of the Senate upon that allimportant American subject. for the reason that the Committee on Immigration of the Senate at the present time has under advisement. by way of subcommittees and the full committee. a number of bills. introduced by myself. totaling about seven or eight. and a great number of bills introduced by other Members of the Senate. and one in particular. introduced by my good friend and colleague the Honorable ROBERT WAGNER. of the great Empire State of New York. Mr. President. I venture to say unhesitatingly. without attempting to enlarge upon the figures. that within the past 6 months I have received more communications in regard to this or that particular phase of the subject of immigration and the deportation of alien criminals than on any other subject. I may add without exaggeration that. since January 1. I have received thousands upon thousands of communications. totaling more than 50.000. all of which evidence to my mind that at this hour the American people are primarily interested in maintaining America for Americans. and are as vitally interested in this subject as in any other. if not more so. for the reason that one of the most important subjects which have been before Congress is that of national defense. and the question of immigration. particularly selective immigration. the question of the deportation of alien criminals and undesirables. interests itself fundamentally and primarily in the question of national defense. From time to time I have stated upon the floor of the Senate that the billions upon billions of dollars which we have appropriated year after year for the purpose of building up our nationaldefense forces appeared to my mind to be a waste unless we did something to protect those forces. Our defense. in a sense. lies within the confines of the United States.
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Immigration immigration deportation